First published 1887; detailed account of totemism throughout the world; v.1; Survey of exogamous systems of Australia; p.7; Belief in descent from totem in W.A., relationship to totem among the Geawe-gal; p.8; Origin of W.A. clan names; p.8-9; Refusal to kill or eat totem except in emergency (Mount Gambier tribe); kinship with totem among Narrinyeri; p.14; Totemic animals kept as pets (Narrinyeri); p.18-19; Punishment for eating totem, general food taboos; p.19; Less respect for totem among Narrinyeri, Dieri; p.22; Warnings & help given by totem (Coast Murring, Kurnai); p.24; Inanimate objects as totem (Encounter Bay tribe, Dieri, Mukjarawaint, Wotjoballuk, Kamilaroi, KuinMurbara, Kiabara); p.27-29; Initiation of totem in tooth avulsion, nose ornaments, cicatrization; p.35; Burial ceremonies (Wotjoballuk); p.40; Totem figures in Yuin initiation rites; p.41-44; Initiation ceremonies in N.S.W., Vic. (Kurnai), the lower Murray & among the Dieri; p.47; Sex totems (Kurnai, Kulin, Coast Murring, Mukjarawaint, Tatathi, Port Lincoln tribe); p.54-55; Infringement of exogamy rule (Ta-ta-thi, Port Lincoln tribe, Kunandaburi); p.60-65; Division of tribes into phratries & subphratries (Turra, Wotjoballuk, Ngarego, Theddora, Kamilaroi, Kiabara) & associated myths (Dieri & W. Vic. tribes); p.65-71; Rules of descent; p.73-75; Cannibalism & blood-letting among kin p.76-77; Eaglehawk & crow as totems among the Dieri, Mukjarawaint, Ta-ta-thi, Keramin, Kamilaroi, Mycoolon, Barinji, Kuinmurbura, Turra, Mount Gambier, Kunandaburi, Wonghibon; p.78- 80; Classification of natural phenomena as subtotems in Mount Gambier, Wakelbura & Wotjoballuk; p.102-115; Central Australian totemism - food taboos, exogamy, increase rites for witchetty grubs, emus, hakea flowers, manna, kangaroos, ceremonies for people of other totems; quotes Spencer on religious aspect of totemism; distribution of religious & social aspects towards the S.E.; p.124-129; Association of soul with sacred objects (ritual objects, nurtunja); p.131.

"As a plain record of a curious form of society which must soon be numbered with the past, the book may continue to possess an interest even when, with the progress of its knowledge, its errors shall have been corrected and its theories perhaps superseded by others which make a nearer approach to truth." Despite having been criticised later, the book at hand is an important and interesting document of its time. It provided the first complete ethnographical summary of totemism and exogamy, dwelling on its religious and social aspects. Totemism is described as a religious and social system in which people or clans regard themselves as related to certain objects. Exogamy, which is often found in conjunction with totemism, is represented as a system which only allows marriage outside of a specific group. On the whole, Frazer's work includes the origins as well as an ethnographical survey of totemism and exogamy in Australian Aboriginal tribes. Sir James George Frazer was a Scottish social anthropologist who contributed mainly to the studies of mythology and comparative religion and was the first to detail the relations between myths and rituals. His work Totemism and Exogamy is also frequently cited by Sigmund Freud in his own study Totem and Taboo.